Study criticises use of soy in farmed fish feed

A study released by Food & Water Watch suggests that the expansion by the soy industry into ocean farmed fish could damage conumers health and the ocean's ecosystem.

According to the study, Factory-Fed Fish: How the Soy Industry is Expanding into the Sea, soy fed fish produces more waste than fish fed fishmeal and oil, which could result in an even greater straint on the environment surrounding these farms.

Due to the nature of open ocean aquaculture, uneated food flows into the sea, and since 94% of the soy grown in the US and much of the soy grown internationally is genetically modified (GM), it follows that GM feed will enter the environment and diets of other marine organisms.

In September 2011, the Illinois Soybean Association issued a press release announcing a new marine fish farm project that would “revolutionise sustainable agriculture.” It was referring to soy-based fish feed.

However, Food & Water Watch claim there has been little public scrutiny of the claims made about soy constituting a sustainable alternative to feed based on wild fish. Factory-Fed Fish is the first report to address the relationship between the soy and “factory fish farming” industries, the group states.

The organisation uses its report to express concerns that the soy industry’s collaboration with aquaculture will exacerbate the negative effects of both sectors by continuing to degrade marine habitats and threaten wild fish stocks and coastal communities -- and also foster massive deforestation and the spread of genetically modified crops in the US and abroad.